Freedom
by PregnancyandBabies
Summary: An Orion warrior escapes her home world and seeks a better life for her unborn child with the crew of the Enterprise?
1. Ganzu (Revenge society)

Lillian placed her hood back over her head and fled. She ran swiftly, and lightly and despite it being one of the busiest times of the evening, the most anyone saw was a black cloak turning out of sight in the corner of their eye, or 'I swear I just saw something move over... never mind.'

It was not until the next morning that the body was found.

'Marcus Owens, a known rapist and drug dealer has been found dead. The police had been on the hunt for him for several months now, but unable to locate him. He appeared to be the most recent victim to the serial killer. The police have made a statement saying that there should be no undue concern and that they are investigating every lead they have. If anyone has any information, please come forward-'

She switched off the holovid. The police's attempts to find her were laughable – they had no leads, they hadn't worked out who she was targeting yet.

The comm unit beside her crackled.

'...Copy? I repeat, does anybody copy? This is code red. Someone from the inside is targeting the syndicate. I repeat, we are being targeted. Do...'

The static was too loud to make out words anymore, but she had already heard enough. Lillian smiled – so someone had worked out her pattern, and it was exactly who she had hoped.

They would be running scared, they would know they were being hunted, and she would chase each and every one of them down before finally turning to her... The _lodubyal ot_... the Mistress.

The Mistress was the one who had given her the order to abort her unborn child, but Lillian had refused. She could remember that day clearly:

 _'_ _You must give up this foolish quest. What do you gain from it?'_

 _'_ _Who says I must gain anything, except the fulfilment of motherhood?'_

 _You will disable yourself, weigh yourself down with a child simply for that?'_

 _'_ _Yes.'_

 _'_ _You must have it killed. I will not have one of my soldiers pregnant.'_

 _'No! I will not do that. I will not harm this child, and neither will you.'_

 _'_ _It is an order.'_

 _'_ _Then I quit.'_

 _'_ _You cannot. The only way to leave the syndicate is death.'_

 _'Very well.'_

And with that, she had left. She made her plans... If the only way to leave was death, then so be it, but it would not be her death, nor that of her unborn child that she had already grown to love.

No – she would hunt down each and every single one of them if it meant her child would be safe.

She rested her hand on her belly as she looked in the mirror. At the moment, her shape was not too large, and yet it was distinctly rounded. She smiled... She had always wanted to be a mother, despite her lifestyle choices. She did not see why she could not be both a mother and a huntress. She would be like a _morakos_ , she thought, a formidable creature not unlike a Terran lioness who could kill without a second thought and yet she would also mother her cub, love it and nurture it. She smiled when she remembered that the Standard translation for a _morakos_ was Shadow-killer. Yes... That suited her just fine.

Whoever her child would grow up to be, she would always love him or her. She would always protect her.

She closed her eyes and imaged a girl, about four years old. Her red curly hair cascading down her back as she ran through a field while holding up the skirt of her long gold dress that suited her grass-green skin almost seeming to glow in the warm sunshine and her huge smile was simply exuding happiness.

As she opened her eyes, her smile matched that of the child that she knew she would sacrifice anything for.

Lillian changed her black catsuit for a long white dress. Normally this dress would drag on the floor, but her new shape meant that now it was the perfect length. She pulled the front of the dress in under her stomach and looked one more time at its curve, before letting it go, pulling on a matching white cloak, and stepping out the house.

She breathed in a lungful of fresh air, and looked up at the brilliant stars.

For the first time in her existence, she had her whole life ahead of her. She rested her hand on her stomach and thought what a wonderful life it would be.


	2. Gamma Vega

Stepping off the shuttle, Lillian took a deep breath, letting the cold air fill her lungs. It was such a wonderful contrast to the humidity of her home planet. Most Orions, or so she'd heard, were alienated by the drastic differences the rest of the galaxy presented the first time they left their homeworld, and yet Lillian found the differences exotic and exciting.

Gamma Vega was a snow planet whose main income was tourism. Unlike its icy neighbour Delta Vega, it was free of large predators. In fact, the largest species of animal that lived on the planet was not unlike a terran house cat, except that its fur was many times thicker - she had heard the creatures were the only export of the planet and were used for therapy, particularly with pregnant women and young children. Apparently petting it released hormones or something.

The fact that that creature was the largest predator on the planet really put things into perspective... Perhaps Orion was just a harsh place. Perhaps there were places in the galaxy where she could be accepted, where she could raise her child in safety...

She had heard stories of the federation, with its equality policies, and even family polices on starships. She grinned at the thought – now that would be something for her... If they would accept an Orion, that is.

She pulled her furs closer around her girth, and walked on. There were many people around, laughing and shouting. There was a huge variety of species too, although she was the only Orion in sight – she looked around, taking it all in. A couple of Tellarites, some Andorians, Cardassians, Therbians...

"Miss? Are you alwight? You seem... lost?" She spun around feeling the hand on her shoulder.

"I am tewribly sowry, ma'am. I not mean to startle you. Can I help?"

She was about to turn him away, but the combination of his Starfleet uniform and an expression that reminded her of a puppy, not to mention the mop of messy, yet endearing gold-brown locks on his head stopped her. She still eyed him suspiciously.

"Perhaps... I wish to reach Terra... or Earth, I think it is called... You are Terran, are you not?"

He gave a sprightly bob of his head and a wide smile: "Da! ... I mean, yes, ma'am. I am from Russia, one of the best nations of all Earth! Many good things were invented there, da?"

She did her best to stay focused, despite his seemingly contagious happiness. "I'm sure you are right... but do you think you get me to Terra? I'm sure I'm not the first Orion to want to head to the federation. I mean, I understand if you won't help me... My kind is often not trusted, but you must understand..." She trailed off. She did not want to reduce herself to begging but she still needed to convey her desperation. She had to find a safe place to raise her child. But of all the reactions she had expected, the young man still surprised her. He smiled.

"It is okay! I can and vill help you. And you must not worry about being Orion – one of our best engineers, apart from Meester Scott, is Orion. Gaila – she is wery good. Wery smart. Everyone on our ship likes Orions and if not then the Keptin vould maroon them on Delta Wega as punishment. The Keptin and Gailia are friends."

"You think that your... Captain would let me have passage on his ship?"

"Da, He vould, yes. You might know him. He is Keptin James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise. He is a good man. Also, I saved his life once. He was falling vhen Wulcan was... anyvay, he owes me, so even if he wouldn't let you onto the ship..." He gave Lillian a shy glance, "I could ask him as favour. You will come with me?"

She smiled and nodded, and let the young man take her by the wrist.

Ma'am, can I ask your name?"

"Lillian. I'm Lillian" she said.

"That is a very beautiful name ma'am. It sounds Russian. I am Ensign Chekov, Pavel Andreievich. You may call me Pasha, though. All my friends do."


	3. Mint Juleps

p class="MsoNormal" style="color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"Thank you everyone who pinted out the formating problems. Hopefully it's fixed now./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"-/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"A motley group of men and women sat by the fire in the wooden cabin chatting and laughing. A section of the floor had apparently been made up to be bedding, but surely the bridge crew of the USS Enterprise could afford better accommodations. Lillian frowned at it, and turned to Pasha questioningly. He shrugged and said "Ze Keptin said it vas called glamping. Like camping, but less cold and more fun." At her still puzzled expression he just said "Is a human thing."/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"A young man with golden hair and the bluest eyes Lillian had ever seen stood up and smiled at her. "Hello Ma'am, Chekov commed ahead to tell us you would be joining us this evening. I'm Captain Kirk, but please call me Jim while I'm off duty." He held his hand out and Lillian frowned at it, unsure of what he was doing. He let it fall to his side. "Ah – I suppose this is your first time off Orion? I'm sorry. It's a human thing."/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"She nooded "I apologise if I caused offence-" he cut her off with a loud laugh "Not at all! Look, I'll introduce you to the gang – Gaila and Scotty are just patching up one of the warp nacelle conduits. They'll be here soon. Gaila is keen to meet you, she left the syndicate too and believe me, I know that isn't easy."/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);""How do you know about the syn-" she tried to ask, but he waved her off. "Enough of that serious talk. This lot are the people that keep me sane, mostly, when out in the black. Commander Spock, an exemplary first officer, science officer and friend-"/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);""I thought Vulcans didn't do friends?"/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"Jim grinned "Well, this one does. Anyway, this Lieutenant Uhura, Chief of communications and also chief of the 'Let's make fun of the Captain' club."/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"Lillian looked horrified "You have a club... for that?"/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"Uhura rolled her eyes at Jim "Not really, Jim thinks he is being funny. I met him while he was half hammered in a bar and he hit on me, and now he is my CO, so I think it's my right to never let him live it down."/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"Jim continued "Anyway, That's Uhura. Uh, you've met Chekov, this is Sulu – Chief Helmsman and damn good at it, best starship pilot in the 'fleet. Now, this is Ms. Rand, Yeoman and Chief Petty Officer. She makes sure I sign the paperwork. Here we have Commander Henderson. Evie here, well that's her standard name anyway, is our Chief Tactical Officer and weapons expert, she is also my bondmate." /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"Lillian frowned – she knew 'bondmate' was a Vulcan term and yet the woman has an open expression and a smile on her face./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);""Commander... may I ask what species you are?"/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"The smile became even wider as the woman answered, "Part Romulan, Part Vulcan, Part human and a little bit genetically modified Augment. Don't worry – I always get asked that. I was raised Romulan, but here I am, a 'fleeter. I'm a bit of an enigma."/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" Jim continued "And Ms. Chapel, our head nurse who has a lovely bedside manner unlike her boss. Speaking of Bones, where is our southern gentlemen?"/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"Lillian tried to make a mental note of all the names and faces. She turned to the captain and enquired "What is a southern gentleman?"/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);""Ah... uh, it means he comes from the south of the North American continent and has a bit of a code of honour. That and he talks like... well you'll hear his drawl. It's another one of those human things" Jim winked./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"A few seconds later, a man came in the door with a bag. Once he had shrugged his coat off, Lillian got a good view of him. He was clean-shaven with a mop of brown hair brushed to the side and must have been 30 to 40 standard years of age./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);""Well, I got the bourbon so we can make ourselves some real mint juleps, hopefully before you concocted another one of your damn fool ideas, Jim, because if I hear the word 'glamping' one more time I'm gonna- oh." He had just noticed Lillian. She felt his eyes drift over her, settling briefly on her waist(or rather, lack of waist) before coming back to look at her with his stormy-green eyes. "I'm sorry, Miss. I didn't see you there. I'm Leonard, Leonard McCoy, but you might as well call me Bones because if you are hanging out with this lot, you'll end up doing it anyway. What brings a lovely Orion lady like you to this Quadrant?"/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"Chekov and Jim tensed slightly, realising this was a sensitive subject, but Lillian just smiled. She already liked this slightly abrasive yet polite doctor, and heard herself calmly explaining to him her reasons./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"Well, I'm awful sorry to hear that, Miss, and If there is anything we can do to help, I'm sure we'll do it." He glanced at his captain, who nodded./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"And that was it, end of conversation. No 'oh that is terrible, and no 'you poor thing'. Just a simple 'sorry to hear that', and then he moved on. Lillian liked that in him, but frowned – obviously he knew something to do with what she was going through. She hoped no one had hurt this endearing, if slightly grumpy, man too much./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);""Would'ya like a julep, Ma'am? Real Georgian recipe."/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"She nodded "Please, Dr. McCoy, Call me Lillian."/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);""Only if you call me Len." He said as he handed her the glass./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);""Thank you... Len." /span/p 


End file.
